Seattle City Wire

The VA Puget Sound Health Care System Washington scheduled 78,751 pending appointments across its eight locations during the period ending March 1, according to data collected from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Of the total number of appointments 66,131 had a wait time of 30 days or less (83.97%) and 12,620 appointments (16.03%) were scheduled more than 30 days out.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in January 2019 reported wait times for new appointments at VA health care facilities were similar to or better than wait times at private-sector providers between 2014 and 2017.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), however, released a report in July 2019 cautioning the VA’s data-tracking system only captures part of the appointment process and fails to account for the time that it takes the VA to enroll veterans in its health benefits program.

Debra Draper, health care director at the GAO, told the House Veterans Affairs Committee new patients may actually wait up to 70 days for an appointment when they first enroll for benefits.

The VA explains when veterans apply for benefits, they are assigned to one of eight priority groups, with those who need immediate care due to service-related disabilities placed in higher priority groups. Veterans who don’t have service-connected disabilities and who earn a higher income are placed in the lower priority groups.

Location	Total Appointments Scheduled	Appointments Scheduled 30 Days or Less	Appointments Scheduled More than 30 Days
Seattle, WA	37,358	32,365	4,993
American Lake, WA	29,064	23,714	5,350
Bellevue, WA	2,766	2,078	688
Silverdale, WA	2,903	2,276	627
Mount Vernon, WA	3,210	2,561	649
South Sound, WA	2,440	2,180	260
North Olympic Peninsula, WA	763	730	33
Puget Sound, WA - Mobile	247	227	20